Rick Minter (left) was the football coach and Bob Huggins the basketball coach when UC was accepted into the Big East Conference in 2003. / Enquirer file photo

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The series continues

• Tuesday: A look at UC’s conference affiliations through the years. • Wednesday: What does the UC athletic department have to sell to a major conference? • Thursday: A look at how UC stacks up in the American Athletic Conference.

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When the University of Cincinnati accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference in 2003, it seemed as if the school had finally arrived at a permanent solution to a chronic problem.

At long last, UC had located a high-profile conference home for both its men’s basketball and football programs. There would be no more switching leagues every 10 years or so, no more joining with other schools to form leagues that didn’t meet all of their needs.

“I thought it was solved,” said then-athletic director Bob Goin. “The facilities were in place. I said, ‘You can fill this stadium with 35,000 people. This place can be jumping. You can play for a championship other than playing in the Liberty Bowl.’ And the truth is that it happened.”

The Bearcats have enjoyed an impressive run since they began play in the league in 2005, especially in football, when they went to the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl after the 2008 and 2009 seasons under Brian Kelly. They also saw their basketball team rise from the ashes under Mick Cronin, with three straight NCAA tournament appearances.

But with the Big East having fallen apart, UC is back on the outside looking in at the major conferences, preparing to compete this fall in the new American Athletic Conference with former Big East members Connecticut and South Florida plus many of the schools it severed ties with when it left Conference USA in 2005. Former Big East members Louisville and Rutgers will be part of the league for one year before they move on to their new conference homes.

As longtime fans know, being in this position is nothing new for UC, which next year will begin competition in its fifth different conference since it abandoned its independent status and became a charter member of the Metro Conference in 1975. The Metro was followed by the Great Midwest, which was followed by Conference USA, which led to the Big East and now The American, which is what the league’s officials prefer it be called.

UC is not unique in its seemingly endless search for a permanent home in a big-time conference. For years, Louisville and Memphis have faced the same issue, which is why the three schools played in the same leagues for so many years. The problem has been even more vexing for Memphis, which was left out of the Big East when UC and Louisville were invited.

Louisville, however, has separated itself from both of its longtime rivals by gaining admission to the Atlantic Coast Conference through increased funding that has helped it excel across the board in many sports; by building state-of-the-art facilities; and by winning at a high level in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. Now it’s up to UC to find a way to make that same separation from the schools in The American and to hope that this time it sticks.

Why has this been such a struggle for UC?

Historically, football has been a big part of the problem, with no bowl appearances from 1950 to 1997, consistently low attendance and a subpar stadium.

When the Big East lost Miami (Fla.), Virginia Tech and Boston College to the ACC, it took a chance on the Bearcats despite their lackluster past in football. UC capitalized by winning four Big East football titles and making six bowl appearances in eight years. But Nippert Stadium remains a problem, which is why the school has plans to renovate it at a cost of $65 million-$70 million.

The Bearcats’ location also has been a drawback because it prevents UC from having the huge natural following that state schools such as Ohio State and Kentucky enjoy.

“If you look at the prototype of the big-time college program in Division I, it usually is in a college town, set aside for that university, centered around that university,” said UC track coach Bill Schnier, who’s retiring this summer after 33 years at the school. “In most cases, they are the flagship school of the state.

“We’re in-between. We’re in a larger city. We have lots of competition. We don’t even have the whole attention of our whole community because there’s also Xavier. There’s also Miami. There’s also Ohio State. So when you look at our fan base, to an extent, we’re painted into a corner and the corner is divided by the state lines.”

UC athletic director Whit Babcock contends that geography is no longer as important as it once was. He cites as evidence the fact that former Big East member West Virginia is not located near the other schools it now competes against in the Big 12.

But Louisville surely has benefited from not being as squeezed by competition as the Bearcats are. The Cardinals’ only in-state competition is Kentucky. And there are no major league sports franchises in the Commonwealth, which makes it easier to fund state-of-the-art facilities such as Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium and the KFC Yum! Center, while UC has struggled to find money to upgrade 35,000-seat Nippert Stadium and Fifth Third Arena.

Louisville spent about $45 million more on athletics in 2011-12 than UC and is coming off a banner year in which the football team won the Sugar Bowl, the men’s basketball team won the national championship and the women’s basketball team advanced to the national title game. The Cardinals are the only game in town, while UC must compete for attention – and money – with the Reds and the Bengals.

“Cincinnati is a pro town,” said Brian Teter, associate athletic director at UC from 2003-06. “No matter how good UC basketball or UC football is, it’s a pro town, but there’s a buzz in that town when UC basketball is playing well.”

UC has made great progress during the past decade, but as the major universities have continued to pour more money into athletics as the conference landscape has shifted, UC has not been able to match them. The school spent $39.5 million on athletics in 2011-12, according to the latest figures available from the U.S. Department of Education. That total ranked last among the 68 BCS automatic qualifying schools that year.

The Bearcats are working hard to close that revenue gap. Babcock said UC hopes to spend in the high $40-million range in 2013-14 – its budget enhanced in part by the restructuring of Varsity Village debt. The budget is projected to continue to grow if UC follows through on its plans to renovate Nippert Stadium to include premium seating. That project has not yet officially received the go-ahead by the university, but Babcock is confident it will happen.

“One of the primary reasons that our budget was low is that we generated very little off of Nippert with the relatively smaller capacity and no premium seating,” Babcock said.

Babcock doesn’t believe UC was left out of the latest wave of realignment solely because of its relative lack of financial resources, but he says having more money will help the Bearcats get where they need to go. On the plus side, they now have a quality football program with a high-profile coach in Tommy Tuberville and a plan to fix Nippert Stadium. They also have a successful, rebuilt basketball program under Mick Cronin.

What they need now – and what they have no control over – is for one of the major conferences to take a chance on them the way the Big East did in 2003.